Holly Jolly Christmas-Winter Wishes at Emerald Creek Dares

Hello friends and visitors! Now that Thanksgiving is just a memory here in the USA, our thoughts turn fully toward winter holidays. The theme at Emerald Creek Dares this month is 'Winter Wishes',and we want you to bring your best winter wishes, New Years ideas, Hanukkah or Christmas creations! To give you a little inspiration, I made a frosty Christmas card using a new Holly Branch stamp sold at Emerald Creek Craft Supplies and four of Kim's finest embossing powders. I have no step out photos to share, but I've included links to Emerald Creek products at the end of this post.

I started with manila card stock and using a scrap piece of card as a mask, painted horizontal lines of Golden acrylic paint. I love this paint--it has so much shimmer and glides on smooth. I blended over with Frayed Burlap Distress ink and flicked on some water for those age spots I love so much. This was layered using foam adhesive tape on a manila card blank which I edged with Versamark embossing ink and embossed with Charred Gold and Soft Fallen Snow embossing powders. 

I inked this beautiful Emerald Creek's Holly Branch stamp in Archival Jet Black and dried. I water colored the holly berries with Candied Apple Distress ink and the leaves with Evergreen Bough Distress ink and a water pen. The ribbon portion of the stamp was treated to some more of the gold paint mixed with glaze this time to thin the color and allow the stamping to show through. The shimmer is beautiful in real life--you'll just have to take my word on that. Once all the coloring was done I fussy cut the image and embossed with Soft Fallen Snow embossing powder to give a frosty look to the leaves and berries. I went back in with Ultra Puff White embossing powder to look like little bits of snow. I used the Charred Gold on the ribbon. To stick the powder in such tiny areas I applied Ranger Emboss It Dabber straight from the opened bottle using my finest paint brush. Because the embossing fluid is clear it's really hard to see exactly where it goes, so this was a rather tedious process. If you find you have too much powder on your surface, simply go back with a stiff paint brush to remove some before heating.

For my smaller holly leaves, I painted more of the gold on some card stock and cut with Tim Holtz Christmas Mixed Media Thinlits die. I embossed the 'snow' using the Ultra Puff White, the branches with Charred Gold and the berries with Fine Candy Red embossing powder. Again, I used my tiny brush to paint on the embossing fluid. The red and gold powders melt rather quickly, and the Ultra Puff a  little slower, so doing this was a little tricky. I had to be careful not to overheat the powders or it would melt into the paper. The paint does help to set up somewhat of a barrier to this.

I stamped Tim Holtz  Simple Sayings label on a scrap of the same card as the background (Versamark ink) and heat embossed with more Charred Gold. I applied a Holiday Talk Metallic sticker for the sentiment and inked with Frayed Burlap and Spritz and Flicked for age. Finally, I gave it a snowy finish using the Ultra Puff White. This and the holly stamped image was popped up on more foam adhesive tape. Now I can't get that song out of my head!

Emerald Creek products used:

Holly Branch Stamp

Charred Gold Embossing Powder

Ultra Puff White Embossing Powder

Soft Fallen Snow Embossing Powder

Candy Red Embossing Powder

Other products used and available at Emerald Creek Supplies:

Distress inks

Ranger Emboss It Dabber

That's all for today! I hope you've found some tiniest bit of inspiration in my card, and that you will head over to see what beautiful winter wishesl my teamies have for you. Then it's over to you! I hope you'll link up your winter wishes for a chance to win a generous gift certificate to Emerald Creek where you will find lots of goodies to complete your holiday projects!

I'm sharing my card with the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #136-Die Cuts and/or Punches I used an Emerald Creek stamp and a Tim Holtz die cut.

Time Out Challenge #71 Christmas With an Optional Twist of Glitter/Shimmer

Allsorts Challenge #391-Anything Christmas

Your Next Stamp Sketch and Color Challenge #53 I chose gold, red, and green.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #258-259-Anything Goes

Double D Challenge Traditional Christmas Colors With Optional Gold

Deep Ocean Challenge #-143 "Santa is Coming to Town" I interpreted this as being a Christmas challenge in general. If I'm wrong, please feel free to delete my entry.

Mod Squad Challenge-Holiday Dimension I popped up my stamped image and sentiment and light dimension through use of chunky embossing powders.

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #222-Make Your Mark I used a water pen and my inks to make my marks!

Thank you for your visit and your comments! I read and appreciate each and every one of them!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily